The Kent State men’s basketball team avenged last week’s overtime loss at Central Michigan with a 83-75 victory over the same Chippewas Saturday night at the M.A.C. Center.

The Flashes, who shot 63 percent from the field, were led by a career performance from sophomore forward Chris Ortiz.

“We’ve been going really hard in practice,” said Ortiz in a post-game interview. “Confidence is going up and we knew we had to attack them, which we didn’t do the last time we played them.”A fast start by Central Michigan in the second half threatened an early Flashes lead, but accuracy from behind the three-point arc helped Kent State to regain their advantage and pull through for their fifth conference victory of the season.

Four Flashes scored in double figures, with Ortiz and sophomore guard Kellon Thomas scoring 17, Kris Brewer adding 14 of his own and senior forward Mark Henniger scoring 10 off the bench on only 5 shots in a perfect night from the field.

“We need everyone to contribute in order to have the best chance to win,” said coach Rob Senderoff. “Tonight we got contributions from everyone who stepped on the floor. That was great to see. Now we’ve won two in a row and we need to keep building some momentum heading into March.”

The Flashes, who have shot more threes than every team in the MAC but Central Michigan, connected on 47 percent of their long-range shots en route to their 14th victory of the season.

Kent State has an away game this Wednesday night at Miami University, where they will hope to keep momentum going and secure a third consecutive victory. Tip-off is at 7 p.m.

Contact Tyler Kieslich at [email protected].